After 820 council meetings, Coun. Payne marks the end of a 'fantastic experience'
Coun. Hilary Payne might be hanging his hat as city councillor, but even after more than three decades of working at city hall, he has no plans of slowing down.
"This has been a fantastic experience," Payne said during his final council meeting Monday night.
"This actually marks the last of some 820 council meetings I have attended after 33 years at city hall. Twenty-five as administration and eight on council," he said.
Payne ran in the last election, but lost the Ward 9 seat to Kieran McKenzie.
"Probably few will be surprised that I do not plan to retire but instead I am looking forward to consulting activities in the municipal area, and also to volunteering for not-for-profit agencies."
'I know this whole system'
He said he plans on working with the Canadian Cancer Society to help with fundraising initiatives.
As for the consulting work, he hopes to help developers and members of the public navigate city hall.
"I know this whole system inside out after being here for 33 years. So I hope I can be of assistance to make their job easier."
He said over the years, he's gotten great satisfaction out of being able to help solve people's problems.
Wanting to help people
"My practice has always been when I get a complaint, deal with it, don't let it drag on, bring it to conclusion. And you can do that in about 90 per cent of the cases," said Payne.
He expressed his appreciation to the administration, the mayor and to council, which has governed "wisely," he said.
"I've had this philosophy all my life that, we're put on this planet and we're taken away from this planet and we don't have a choice in that," he said.
"But when we're on this planet, we should try to leave it a better place than when we got here, and that translates into helping people, and city councillors and people that take these positions with municipalities, they have a tremendous opportunity to do that, to help people."
Monday night was also the last meeting for Councillors Paul Borrelli, John Elliott and Bill Marra.
